This years entry to the BP Portrait award - it didn't even get past the first round! Its based on the portrait of Sophy Grey featured here:
Sophy Grey
The model is Phoebe and she always reminded me of the painting with her colouring and confidence in front of a camera.
Shall I enter the competition next year?
450mm by 370mm
This is the finished piece for 'Spring' in the Seasons sequence. I started this a long time ago and never finished it, leaving it to work on other pieces. Now its finished I only have Autumn to do. Its 100cm * 70cm and the model is Georgina Ward.
Am I pleased with it? Well the problem is that it took so long to do, my fault, that you sort of lose the interest. I'm never happy with any piece but it does have some good points.
Another one (still taking the easy route and not painting!) this time with white crayon type pencil rather than pastel.
Tried something a little different by using white on black card. Again slight digital tidying and colour. Reference image sadly off the internet and I simply can't remember where it came from, probably tumblr.
I'm finally posting this painting that was completed several months ago. It took forever to get this right and it was a development of a charcoal drawing on the next page. The charcoal does not look as bad as the photo suggests. Not sure why it took so long unless it was due to the delusive nature of the image. The lack of detail is not something I'm good at, but would like to be! The other problem was that it was painted on a board which was not sealed very well and needed lots of oil paint. I used a reference photo from a photo session I did with Elena D. for some idea I have not started yet and it was just a accidental shot. A bit like the small pieces of Card.
94 cm by 61cm
I never tire of drawing with charcoal. Maybe its because its so good at showing mood but I suspect that its more to do with its immediacy. Comparing it with painting which is so time consuming, well when you paint as I do, is not really useful. Oil painting needs more planning and can go wrong which, after you have spent so long at it, therefore can be more emotionally painful. That may sound pretentious but its not meant to be. Charcoal is more of a preparatory process for some later work. If it goes wrong its easy to throw it in the bin. These pieces take about a day to draw and then a bit of digital work. With this piece I touched up the whites in the eye and lips and then added a little colour over the bottom left. However I'm still not sure where these are going, the aim is to produce paintings, proper art, from this work. Should I concentrate on the development or just take the easy option and draw a few more?
